iPad 2 reviews from around the web

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We all watched in awe as Steve Jobs announced and demonstrated the new iPad 2 last Wednesday. The reviews hit last night, and it’s no surprise that most of them are overwhelmingly positive. Until Friday at 5 p.m., these reviewers are the only people to really get their hands dirty with the new iPad 2.

It’s one-third slimmer, 15 percent lighter, twice as fast, and has two cameras, but is it really worth it? If you’re on the fence whether or not to buy the iPad 2, check out some of these reviews to help you decide.

New York Times
The New York Times’ David Pogue reminds us that the first reviews of the iPad were pretty negative. Besides the name, which got many sanitary napkin jokes for a few months, the iPad was, according to Bloomberg, “Nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks.” Well, it seems “a few” turned into 15 million iPads being sold in just nine months. Perhaps the reviews were wrong? Pogue say the appeal of the iPad is more emotional than rational.

Though he points out the lack of overall improvements, the few that have been made make a big difference and transforms the experience. Unlike a TV or a laptop, you’re almost always holding a tablet, and Pogue says “thin and light are unbelievably important for comfort and overall delight.”

AllThingsD
Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital was overall pleased by the updated iPad. He says it offers an excellent balance of size, functionality, and price. Unlike many Android devices he’s tested, the iPad 2 didn’t crash once. However, for previous iPad owners, he says that unless you’re desperate for the cameras, or you feel the original version is too bulky, Mossberg doesn’t advise you dump your original for the new iPad 2.

PCMag.com
If you’re thinking about purchasing a tablet from a different company, say the Motorola Xoom, for example, you may want to think again. According to PCMag’s Tim Gideon, Steve Jobs is right in boasting that most of the new 2011 tablets are no match for the original Apple iPad. The Xoom is the only tablet that shows promise in competing with the iPad, but none of the other tablets, like RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, HP’s TouchPad, or Samsung’s Honeycomb Galaxy Tab, are really able to contend with Apple’s second iPad.

Engadget
Yes, the iPad 2 seems pretty great, but as Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky points out, there are still some important factors Apple needs to work on. He says the cameras are severely lacking, the screen — though extremely high quality — is touting last year’s spec, and the OS still has major annoyances, such as pop-up notifications. Topolsky recommends the iPad 2 for people who don’t already own an iPad, but he’s not entirely sure Apple will get the response it’s expecting from previous iPad owners.

Macworld
Macworld’s Jason Snell says the iPad 2 addresses many of the original deficiencies. He said it “dramatically improves its speed, and doesn’t cede any ground on price, features, or battery life.” Like PCMag said in its review, Snell thinks it’s time for the rest of the industry to catch up to Apple’s high-set bar. Also, Snell puts it best when he says for competitors “the iPad 2 is a bucket of water to the face.”

LAPTOP
Forget about the whole thinner and lighter thing, what about the new dual-core processor? LAPTOP wasn’t blown away by it. Reviewer Mark Spoonauer did however say it “provides a noticeable performance boost while making resource-hungry app such as iMovie feel buttery smooth.” He also was a fan of the Smart Case, which he said demonstrates Apple’s uncanny integration of hardware and software.